backup in a small office with some restrictions...

[ponzonik]

Hi, thanks for reading this.
I have a problem, I have an office with 7 computers. All but one use
Outlook XP/2003, and most have 600MB+ .pst files. My network is not so
fast but that isn't the real problem here, but it should be considered
nevetherless.
I want to make a backup of each computers' mail plus some sparse files
(My Documents, one customers database), and then burn the entire thing
to a DVD. (As it is a weekly backup and there is an employee
permanently with technical knowledge, this can be made in two steps,
eg.: one program copies the data and then everything is recorded
manually.) The BIG problem is, how do I get each computer to backup
whatever I want? Problem is, if Outlook is running, most backup
programs just skip de .pst because the file is open (in another post they say ntbackup does copy it anyway... well it doesn't, at least not here). As computers are really expected to stay
shut off out of office hours, backup has to be made in office hours.
This happens with MS backup utility, or Cobian Backup 7, and two other
programs that I forgot how they are called. If I arranged to let the
computers on from monday to tuesday, that wouldn't be a problem...
unless someone forgot Outlook open, missing the weekly backup.


What can I do? Is there any program that let's me do this automatically
(specially the dvd part)?


Thanks in advance!

 

[sykopath79]

There is a PST Backup Utility available from Microsoft as a free add-in for Outlook (2000 and later versions). It will add a "Backup..." choice under the File menu in Outlook, and from here it can be configured to prompt the user to make a backup every x days. This will get you around the issue of them having Outlook running when you perform the backup operation, as you can tell the backup software to grab the backup copy of the .PST files that the Outlook backup utility creates, instead of going for the in-use .PST files themselves.

 

[ponzonik]

yes, but that tool offers the user the chance to cancel the backup. i picture them closing outlook at 19.03 and watching the computer tell them they'll have to wait another 5 to 10 minutes. not a chance. besides, i've seen it fail a couple of times in other places, so i'd like to use something else.

thanks for the reply